Dogged by Death by Laura Scott has Ally Winter moving to Willow Bluff, Wisconsin to be near her grandfather, Oscar after some big upheavals in her life. Ally buys out a local veterinary practice and settles into her new life. Ally is hired by Marty Shawlin to walk his dog, Roxy. She arrives the first day to find Roxy barking frantically and Marty dead on the floor. Detective Noah Jorgensen, Ally’s old high school crush, is on the case. Gramps, a true crime junkie, is eager to do some investigating of his own with help from Ally, of course (he has trouble getting around since his hip replacement surgery). The killer is not playing games and tries to deter Ally. Gramps is even more determined to find the guilty party. Dogged by Death is the debut of A Furry Friends Mystery series. I enjoyed this entertaining new cozy mystery. I laughed often while reading it. Ally Winter is a solid protagonist and I just love Gramps. He is a hoot. Roxy, Marty Shawlin’s dog, is smart and such a sweetie. The secondary characters are a great addition. The Willow Bluff Widows who live with Gramps at Willow Bluff Legacy House, an assisted living facility, nicely round out the cast along with Noah Jorgensen. I am glad the author took the time to establish the characters (characters can make or break a series). The mystery was fun to follow thanks to Gramps and Ally. I did feel that we really do not get to know the suspects. I understand why they are suspects, but the emotions were lacking. Readers should have no problem solving the whodunit before the reveal. There is repetition of case details and I wish the whodunit had been more of a challenge. I love how Ally and Gramps would “share” their information with Noah. Noah was always finding them in compromising situations. He has a facial twitch that was getting out of control by the end of the investigation (he found Gramps to be a challenge). Dogged by Death moved along at a quick pace with good dialogue and plenty of humor. I am looking forward to Tailing Trouble when it comes out next year. Dogged by Death is a tail wager with a septuagenarian sleuth, a benevolent veterinarian, willing widows, a bright boxer, an enduring detective, and a cruel killer.

A new series, a dog on the cover and a cozy - yes, please. Dogged by Death introduces us to Ally, a 31 year old veterinarian who has returned home to start a new chapter in her life. She had what seemed like the perfect one sharing a veterinarian practice with her finace. Too bad he was a louse in more ways than one. He was having an affair with one of their staff and took off with her, taking every cent in their bank account. Ally was left with all of the huge debts and was forced to sell up and move back home. Home includes her grandfather, Oscar, in his mid 70's and recovering from hip surgery. To Ally he's her beloved Gramps and he's a hoot and a half. Along with the three widows who also reside at the assisted living home, those seniors are a real handful.
Gramps loves true crime books and soon is eager to solve the murder of a sleazy lawyer he had earlier crossed paths with. The police are not amused but the reader sure is. Ally was the one who discovered the dead lawyer when she showed up at his house to walk his boxer, Roxy - what a great dog. Ally has her hands full as she tries to corral the seniors, get her animal clinic up and running, praying that the previous vet's client list will come through for her and unmask a killer before she becomes the next corpse.
This debut mystery hit all of the points I look for in a cozy: it's a satisfying puzzle, has great characters and a variety of animals. Now I'm ready to read the next in the series, Tailing Trouble due out January 2022.
My thanks to Crooked Lane and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun book. A main character and her gramps and the three women vying for his attention. That's a recipe for disaster...or fun, whichever. This book was blast to read, and I couldn't put it down. Already looking forward to the next one!

I feel like this is a 3.5 star for me, but I'm still figuring it out. The setting was fun and the widows were an absolute delight. Ally's relationship with Gramps was so sweet, but I felt like this book suffered from trying to introduce so many things. Setting up a new series is hard and this book definitely didn't quite make it... I'm willing to give the series another chance and hope that it was just first book problems.

after a failed engagement and joint business venture. Rather than having a partner she doesn’t trust this time around, she purchases the local veterinary clinic and finds business is slow. Rather than wallow in pity, Ally spends time with her grandfather and ends up helping him sleuth when a local attorney is murdered.

Ally’s old high school crush is now a detective and is assigned to the case. Along with butting into Noah’s investigation with Gramps, Ally finds herself taking care of the dead man’s dog. While deadman tell no lies, neither do their dogs, especially when Roxy seems to sense the killer is near. Now it’s a race to find the killer before the killer finds Ally and Roxy and puts them down once and for all.

The first in a new series, Dogged by Death gets things off in the right direction. With plenty of animals, red herrings and a mutual attraction, it looks like Laura Scott will have plenty to write about for many books to come. I’m looking forward to more in this series.

Dogged By Death is the first book in the A Furry Friends Mystery series by Laura Scott.

Ally Winter, DVM, has returned home to Willow Bluff, Wisconsin, after discovering that her fiancee has cleared out their bank account and has run off with their veterinary technician, leaving Ally with massive debts. Ally’s grandfather has recently had hip surgery and is now living in a home with three widows. The community’s vet has recently retired, and Ally has taken on his practice. Pet owners haven’t been rushing to the clinic with their pets, but she hopes once word gets out that she is also offering dog grooming and dog walking, things will start to pick up.

One morning just as she is opening, Marty Shawlin enters with a boxer named Roxy. He says it is his ex-wife’s, and she is out of town and would like Ally to walk her every day around noon.

The next day when Ally goes to take Roxy for her noontime walk, she hears Roxy barking, and as she enters the garage she encounters an offensive odor. Ally enters the kitchen and lets Roxy out of her kennel, and Roxy starts running for another room and Ally follows and soon learns where the foul odor from, finding Shawlin lying on the floor with the back of his head bashed it.

The day before, Ally had seen her Gramps having a heated discussion with Shawlin at the house where her Gramps lives. Gramps is a big fan of true crime stories, police shows, and Dateline and convinces Ally that they can learn who the killer is as well as the police. Ally reluctantly agrees as she knows he would do it on his own, and she wants to keep him safe. They soon find that Shawlin has been scamming some elderly residents by getting them to set up trusts and rewriting their wills which provides several suspects.

The book is an enjoyable start to a new series. The book is well-written and plotted and moves at a nice pace. The characters are well-developed and believable. I particularly enjoyed the widows who live in the same house as Gramps. Their banter is quite funny and provides lighthearted moments, and Gramps will also provide some humorous times.

I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series, Tailing Trouble, due out January 11, 2022.

Dogged by Death by Laura Scott is a great start to the Furry Friends Mysteries! Ally, Gramps and the three widows are wonderfully developed characters, and it was so much fun reading about Ally and Gramps investigating, since they are the perfect compliment to each other. And the three widows add some levity to the story, especially with how they all compete with each other to get in Gramps and Ally’s good graces. And the little girl who kept bringing Ally injured animals was adorable.

There were two things that stood out and I don’t want to say annoyed me, exactly, but paused my reading because it was mentioned so much. The first was Ruby growling when a certain person seemed to be around. And while Ally noticed it and thought about it, she kept pushing off really investigating it. I don’t know how Laura Scott could have handled it differently because it was essential to the story, but there was just something there.

And I know all the protagonists who own businesses often leave them to solve the crime, but I find it really unlikely that a vet would be leaving the business (especially a new one) as much as she did, even if she didn’t have a lot of appointments in the books. I know our vet’s office is always booked and there are always emergencies, so this also stood out. I think that if she had an answering service or if it was mentioned that the phones could be forwarded to her phone, it would have been an easy fix.

I don’t want to discourage you from reading the series because it really is very good, but with how many cozies I read these just felt like issues that could have been handled better. Already looking forward to book two in the Furry Friends Mysteries!

Dogged by Death is the first book in the Furry Friends Mystery Series by Laura Scott. Since it is the first book there is the introduction of the characters and their relationships. Ally Winter and her grandfather, the events leading up to her moving back to Willow Bluff, Wisconsin along with her feared reputation in the small town as one who is accident prone. Perhaps this is why she feels her vet business is slow to take off but as the murder happens she becomes not so clumsy as she becomes a reluctant sleuth to her doggedly determined grandfather. The dog Roxy is the only witness so her animal skills are also called into play. There's no graphic violence or gore, just a good, clean mystery, with a lot of fun, and one smart dog. All of this I loved.

Besides Ally and her grandfather there is Noah Jorgensen the detective on the case. He is another character who grew up in the town. Ally and Noah have a workable relationship in this book but you hope to see more develop in their relationship. As for Roxy, she sure would make a great police dog. She helped make the story full of civilian sleuths, lots of suspects, gossipy small town people and hardworking police a great hit with me.

The publisher through Net Galley provided a digital ARC. I have voluntarily decided to read and review, giving my personal opinions and thoughts.

I absolutely loved this book! It pulled me in from the first page and kept my attention until the very end. Gramps is the most awesome character, and I got such a kick out of how he managed to investigate and get information out of people, especially the women in town, since anyone over 60 was usually swept off their feet by him. Gramps wasn't a player though and said no one would ever replace his Amelia. The three ladies in the assisted living house with him were such a hoot! They always heard the gossip almost before the police knew about it.

I loved how the story was so smooth and easy to read with natural-sounding conversations and very likable characters. That sweet Boxer Roxy had my heart from the first time she was mentioned! And she played a big part in the showdown (I love it when a pet can do that!). I actually enjoyed hearing about some of the cases Ally took care of. There were quite a few of them, and that made the story flow nicely with mixing those along with Gramps and Ally investigating.

I'm sure Noah and Ally will become lots more than friends eventually, but it's sweet to see them reconnecting, and he only teased her a couple of times about her old high school nickname, lol. I really was happy about how Ally's vet practice grew just from a few things she did herself like followup calls. It'll be interesting to see if Lydia ever gets to work as receptionist in the next book. And I can't wait to see what Gramps gets into with the next case.

The showdown was awesome, short and effective. I enjoy it a lot more when help or reinforcements come quickly! (less nerve-wracking haha) I'd started suspecting whodunit after the clues started falling in place, so it was just a matter of time as to when Ally had the same person in mind.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, Crooked Lane, and my opinions are my own.

Dogged by Death by Laura Scott is the 1st book in A Furry Friends Mystery, and it is off to a great start. Veterinarian Ally Winter moved to Willow Bluff, Wisconsin after her fiance cleaned out their bank account, and ran away with a vet tech. Ally grandfather recently had hip replacement surgery, and she wanted to be close to him. Ally bought the Willow Bluff veterinarian clinic after the other vet moved to Florida. When Ally goes to an attorney's home to walk his dog, she finds him dead, and the sleuthing begins. Ally's grandfather is a true-crime fan, and is determined to solve the case. Ally's high school crush is the lead detective. I really enjoyed this new book, and am looking forward to the next book in the series. I highly recommend this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Returning home is never easy. Taking over a veterinary practice from a beloved doctor who has retired isn't either. Ally Winter has her hands full, and her heart. Returning home to Willow Bluff, Wisconsin, isn't easy for her but her grandpa, Gramps for short; makes it easier. Now if only she can keep him out of trouble. Murder in this small town causes mayhem and a list of suspects gets longer as the duo attempt to solve the case before the hunky Noah, the detective on the case, can do so. It will put Ally in the crosshairs of a killer with nothing left to lose. Sidekick Roxy, the faithful boxer is at her side. This is first in a new cozy mystery series on the Furry Friends Clinic. Great beginning to a series. Quick read, witty, with lovely characters and strong progression in storyline development for future books in the series. Makes you want to read more.

A veterinarian has lost her business. She then moves near her grandfather and takes over the vet business in that town. This move gives the author a chance to introduce the readers to the characters and animals in this town.
I thank Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read the first book of this series. Since I much prefer thrillers rather than cozies, I will not be reading more. However, this series is recommended for those who enjoy books that combine animals and cozies.

My job is pretty high stress at the moment. Reading is my escape, and there are days I just need an entertaining cozy mystery to just let me escape into a story for a few hours. When I read the name of this new cozy series, I had to read it right then. No question. Immediate read required.

Furry Friends Mysteries.

Yes. Please.

And I'm glad I jumped on book 1 of this new series and read it! Very enjoyable story!

The basics: Ally Winter is a veterinarian. Her life implodes - fiance gone, savings gone, vet clinic gone. All gone. So she moves back to her hometown, Willow Bluff, WI, to begin a do-over and to help her grandpa after his hip replacement surgery. Things get worse when Ally finds a local shady attorney dead. Can a down-and-out vet and a true-crime buff grandpa catch a killer??

Ally and her grandpa are awesome characters! Roxy the dog is also wonderful -- I have a dog named Roxie so the name alone made me smile! The mystery is entertaining and engaging. I like the characters and the side plot. Overall, a very enjoyable cozy mystery. I'm definitely reading more of this series.

This is the first book by Laura Scott that I've read. I will definitely be reading more by her. Love it when I find a new-to-me author that I enjoy! The front cover is so cute. Cozies have the best covers!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

An enjoyable start to a new series. Ally discovers a dead body and much to her dismay her Gramps, a true crime addict, is ready to investigate. It is also a thorn in the side of Detective Noah Jorgenson who still calls Ally "hot pants" thanks to her unfortunate experience with fire ants in high school.

I really enjoyed the characters with Gramps as a women magnet who fancies himself an amateur sleuth and his granddaughter Ally who just wants to get her new veterinarian business going. Also the smart and loving boxer (dog) Roxy. This story is complete with a good mystery, humor and a tease of romance. I look forward to the next book in the series. Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

This is the first in a new series by Laura Scott. I liked the description in Netgalley and thought I would give this new to me author a chance. The book cover helped draw me into the book.

Veterinarian Ally Winter has returned back home to Willow Bluff after being dumped. Her ex-fiancé left her in debt which wiped out her savings and took her veterinary clinic. Her grandfather needing hip replacement surgery was a catalyst in bringing her back home.

While Ally struggles to make her new veterinary clinic a go, she has taken to simple chores such as dog walking to supplement the clinic’s income. One of her clients is lawyer, Marty Shawlin.

Ally finds Marty Shawlin murdered in his home office. Her grandfather fancies himself as an amateur sleuth. With the reluctant help of Ally, he wants to prove his granddaughter innocent of this crime.

I found the book well-written and the plot well-developed. I liked the characters. Looking forward to the next installment.

I was given a digital arc provided by NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books. I am not required to leave a positive review. I chose to do so.

Omg what a fantastic cozy mystery. I was on the edge of my seat as I read how Ally, her grandpa and his widowed roommates solve the murder of a local lawyer. I laughed out loud at the antics that the characters got into while solving the case and my jaw dropped reading how the suspects covered their tracks, making me wonder who exactly did do the murder. Highly recommend to all cozy mystery lovers.

I received an advance rating copy from #NetGalley and #Crooked Lane books and am sharing my honest review.

When reading cozy mysteries, there are certain expectations which the genre fandom of readers looks to the author to fulfill. With Dogged By Death Laura Scott does not disappoint in meeting the hopes of mystery aficionados who are content with suspense without theatrics, crime without brutality, small-town criminals without big-city savagery, and relatable character personalities.

While the heart-attack inducing suspense novels provide a prolonged and complex drawing out of the plot, this novel tones down the level of drama. The reader, rather than being on the edge of his or her seat without intermission, gets a refreshing stroll through small-town life and veterinary adventures as Dr. Ally Winter embarks on a mission to succeed in running her own veterinary clinic. Scott’s blending of the normalcy of every day life amidst murder gives the reader a balance of the seriousness of the crime while dispensing small doses of comic relief.

In contrast to the in-depth crime novels that thrive on delivering gruesome imagery by the page, Dogged By Death simply describes the fatality briefly and moves on smoothly to pave the way for less gore and more plot-centered details.

The nature of the criminals
in this cozy mystery embodies the definition of good and evil without adding extreme gangster-like qualities to the villains that require distasteful illumination.

Another benefit to reading Dogged By Death is the collection of quirky and lovable people of Willow Bluff, Wisconsin. From the caring and knowledgable local vet protagonist, to her humorous and outgoing grandfather with a penchant for true crime, to the three widows sharing a residence with him, to the former high school quarterback-turned -detective, and the rest of the small-town citizens, the reader will feel like a part of the community from page one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the generous opportunity to read and review such an entertaining mystery by a talented author.

Ally Winters returns home to Willow Bluff, Wisconsin after losing her fiancé, savings and clinic. Buying the practice of another veterinarian near her grandfather, business is slow so Alley also grooms and takes dog walking jobs to earn a living. It turns out her first dog walking job is the attorney, Marty Shawlin, that Ally's grandfather at words with. When she goes to his house to pick up the dog, the dog is agitated and there is a really bad smell in the house. When she looks further, it's to find the attorney dead on the floor of his home office.

Who killed Marty? Well, it appears a lot of people had a good motive to kill him so there are plenty of suspects in this book. The story was good, the writing was good and I enjoyed it. That said, I found the grandfather very annoying. Binge watching Dateline does not a detective make as well as him being annoyed that the detective wouldn't share information on an open investigation. Other than being annoyed with the grandfather, I enjoyed the mystery itself and the other characters.

Please note that I got a copy of this book from Netgalley.com and the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is a nice start to a new cozy series featuring Ally, a veterinarian who has moved back to her Wisconsin home town after her life fell apart and her grandfather Oscar fell and needs her. She's starting over and trying to over come her high school years not helped by the fact that Detective Noah Jorgenson is also back. The death of a rotten attorney intrigues Ally enough that she, along with Oscar and his friends at the care home, investigate. Cozy readers know that many people disliked the victim and that his dog will play a role in finding the culprit. There's definite frenemy romance vibes between Ally and Noah that will surely be fleshed out in future installments. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Good characters and setting make this a fun read.

A cozy that couldn't keep my attention. It's too much like many others without that special something I need in a series to keep reading
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc